Getting shock

[Alexccmeister]

Hi all,

While tig welding aluminium today I accidentally touched my filler road on the tungsten and got a shock. In fact I was shocked twice before having the filler road touched the tungsten.

Is this normal? Does this happen when tig welding in DC? BTW, I wear Tillman tig gloves when tig welding..

Regards,

Alex

 

[wheresmejumper]

it happens in both,but ac is a stronger bang.

 

[justmental]

yes it does happen earthing through you and not the aluminium.
having a good ground helps. lol

 

[Alexccmeister]

it happens in both,but ac is a stronger bang.

Thanks for the info. Concern if its my machine not functioning properly.

yes it does happen earthing through you and not the aluminium.
having a good ground helps. lol

My table isn't grounded apart from the ground clamp from the tig welder. Should I ground the table by connecting another cable from the table to the electrical ground circuit? Will this prevent future shocks when I accidentally touch the tungsten while tig welding with the filler road?

 

[Jim Davey]

Were you wearing gloves? Shocks happen much more if you are welding in bare hands/arms.

 

[justmental]

no i didnt mean like that way. lol

i ment make sure the parts you are welding have a good ground to the table if its the table you have the ground attached too.

 

[Alexccmeister]

Were you wearing gloves? Shocks happen much more if you are welding in bare hands/arms.

Yes I was wearing Tillman tig glover. They are thin for the feel.

no i didnt mean like that way. lol

i ment make sure the parts you are welding have a good ground to the table if its the table you have the ground attached too.

OK. I did read a few times where people suggested grounding the table to some water pipes or something. So I thought you may be referring to that. So I assume then the ground cable clamped to the table from the welder should be sufficient?

I think I should clarify that I get the shock when ever I touched the filler rod to my tungsten.

 

[Jim Davey]

Stop doing it then

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

One way to double check mate

 

[Alexccmeister]

Stop doing it then

Working on it mate. Just started tig welding a month ago and can't seem to keep my hand stable enough. I guess practice will help. But I was wondering if this is normal and can I get zapped even with tig glove on.

One way to double check mate

Sorry not quite get what you mean.

 

[Lawnmowerboy]

I think I should clarify that I get the shock when ever I touched the filler rod to my tungsten.

One way to check if that's when you get the shock!

 

[Alexccmeister]

One way to check if that's when you get the shock!

Haha... I try not to do that again. Thanks.

 

[Jim Davey]

Sorry, not the most helpful comment was it? And your hands will be even more likely to shake if you know a shock is coming everytime you come into contact with the tungsten.
Are your gloves damp? Normally Tig gloves are enough to keep out shocks but not always as you've found. I suggest you get really comfortable, get your work at the right height so you can rest both hands on the table so they are steady and move the torch in small (3-4mm) overlapping circles or a slight back and forth motion and add the filler as you move the torch back, this makes it easier to avoid a collision with the tungsten and filler rod.
I'd suggest you get used to this movement with the set switched off for ten or twenty minutes while your body and brain gets used to the sequence, when you're happy, try it for real.

 

[Ed.]

Hi, Having your table earthed probably won't make any difference as to if you get zapped or not, if you have the work clamp connected to the table and you are TIG welding a piece of metal on the table then the electricity will go from your tungsten to the work and to the table back to the welder via the path of least electrical resistance.

However if you pull the tungsten a bit too far from the work and your filler rod comes too close to the arc then the arc can jump over to the filler rod and use it to get to the table via your body, your body can provide the return electrical path to the table by leaning on it, resting a hand on the table or something like that, your gloves can have moisture from sweating but in any case the HF will quite easily go through the thin leather. The TIG unit I have throws out 8-10mm HF sparks.

A while ago I killed a bench grinder on my welding table by not connecting the work clamp to the table when I started to weld, and the HF then went from the work to the table to the grinder, then through the insulated power cable to get to the power earth cable and back to the earth on the welder. the grinder power lead had about 5 holes in it where the HF blew through it.

So if it can go through the PVC then your thin leather glove will not not offer much resistance.

Cheers

Ed.

 

[Alexccmeister]

Hi Jim and Ed, thanks for the comments and your answers were what I was hoping to read. I guess my glove was damp with sweat while I was tig welding. But with HF, seems like most glove will not offer any protection. Will work on the techniques.